"also I think Zheng himself was probably not as skillful at fighting. "

in one of the interview articles on his site WCCC is asked by one of the senior students if Zheng tested his Tai Chi in tournaments, and WCCC said that he wasn't sure but didn't think so, but that Zheng never objected when he started to fight in them.

Robert wrote-"He highly modified Yang's taiji after he had a dream in which his arms were broken and he had to fight without them. "
-that's very interesting considering the style, the arms never move by themselves, he talks about this often. and nothing is extended very far from the body.

WCCC is very pragmatic about fighting, he writes a lot about this in his articles.

Robert,

as experienced as you are I'd be interested in your reaction to his latest article that I linked to in the 1st post.